Point of View

Roald Dahl tells his novel George’s Marvelous Medicine in the third-person omniscient perspective. The narrator recounts the events of the story in which George makes a marvelous medicine to cure Grandma. The narrator knows everything going at any one time –from the things George is thinking and feeling to the things that George does. This provides a clear view to the reader of everything going on, and helps the reader to anticipate things the characters themselves do not know –and this creates humorous situations. For example, when Grandma mistakes the fourth batch of marvelous medicine for tea, the reader already knows it will cause her to shrink, while Grandma does not.

Language and Meaning

Roald Dahl tells his novel in language that is simple, inventive, and straightforward, while artist Quentin Blake provides black-and-white pen-and-ink illustrations to visually bring to life Dahl’s words. The...